• All shows are 7:30 p.m., except for Gordon Lightfoot, which starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are available at SunCenterConcerts.com or Ticketmaster.com, at all Ticketmaster locations and by phone at 800-745-3000. Concerts are held rain or shine with doors to the venue opening one hour prior to each event. The parking lot and box office will open two hours before the start of each show.

CHESTER TOWNSHIP — In a matter of days, a grassy field at Sun Center Studios will transform to launch the inaugural Starlight Summer Concert Series, taking one step closer to realizing Jeffrey Rotwitt’s dream of creating one of the Northeast’s premier entertainment destinations.

On Wednesday, Tedeschi Trucks Band will bring their special blend of blues rock to the Delaware County facility, kicking off a 10-event series stretching through Aug. 13 when the Beach Boys take the stage.

It’s a series that almost didn’t happen.

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Rotwitt, president of the Sun Center Studios, recently told the Daily Times that Sun Center was approached by Haddonfield, N.J.-based concert promoter BRE Presents to host the series.

“They thought this was a natural location, a perfect location,” Rotwitt said. “We had the glitz and the glamor of the movies. We also had a convenient place in the Delaware Valley with the Commodore Barry Bridge here and all the road networks.”

But Rotwitt wanted to keep making movies and television shows and commercials.

“We were saying, ‘Thanks, but no thanks,’” he said. “It wasn’t part of our business plan. We were playing hard to get, but we thought it was branching ourselves out farther than we anticipated.”

At some point, Rotwitt began to see opportunity in that request.

“We came to the conclusion that this is an ideal location not only in the Delaware Valley but (also) in the I-95 corridor for a whole menu of entertainment options,” he said, making note of the 75 million people that live within a five-hour radius from Sun Center.

And so his concept for expansion was spawned.

Construction on Sun Center Studios began in 2010 and was finished by Labor Day a year later.

Since then, various commercial projects have been shot onsite, as has M. Night Shyamalan and Will Smith’s feature film “After Earth,” “Paranoia” with Harrison Ford and Liam Hemsworth and “Franny” with Richard Gere and Dakota Fanning.

Yet, beyond that, Rotwitt wants to add more to the complex, putting it in line with names like Disney and Universal.

“Disney is really our paradigm,” he said. “(Visitors will) have opportunities to see things here you only see a portion of in Disney and Universal, and because ours will be brand new, we’re going to have things that they don’t even have in terms of technology.”

Many of the entertainment spectacles will be experienced in an indoor attraction, where movie effects will be recreated to thrill visitors while also educating them about the film industry.

“We are looking at creating the best essentially of what Disney and Universal do,” Rotwitt said. “We’ll have cutting-edge technology. We will have an indoor and an outdoor experience.”

Rotwitt also plans on building a 1,000-seat amphitheater with a water attraction simulating Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark, with lasers and smoke, as well as a European-like retail center. A 200-room boutique hotel with a rooftop restaurant and views of the tri-state area and Center City is expected to break ground later this year, Rotwitt said.

“We’re looking at doing a signature hotel, not a generic hotel,” he said. “The views will be commanding.”

In the meantime, the Starlight series is about to begin, bringing with it recognition for the area.

“We think it’s wonderful that they chose Delaware County to do this,” Tore Fiore, executive director of the Brandywine Conference & Visitors Bureau, said. “It’s just visibility. It’s getting the name ‘Delaware County’ out there. It’s getting the name ‘Sun Center’ out there. You can’t really pay for that.”

He said he knows of people traveling from Norfolk, Va., specifically for the July 16 concert by Straight No Chaser.

“Every band has groupies,” Fiore said. “Each of those bands has websites. Each of those websites will have show schedules and each of those schedules will show Sun Center, Delaware County.

“People are going to be talking about Delaware County when they’re talking about going to see the band,” he said. “It’s positive reinforcement of what Delaware County is.”

In contrast to the county’s free weekly Rose Tree concert series in the summer, Fiore explained these have different concentrations. He said the Rose Tree festival highlights mostly local, mid-range acts, and it’s a free presentation.

At Sun Center, Fiore said, “They’re nationally known acts that give the county more visibility and more recognition as an entertainment facility.”

For those concerned about traffic flow, Chester Township councilman Robert May said past events have gone smoothly. Pointing to various graduation ceremonies that have been held there with hundreds in attendance, he said arrival and departure were never a problem.

In addition, Rotwitt said the studios’ predecessor, Tri-State Sports, hosted 600,000 visitors annually, including practices for four professional teams and leagues for 5-year-olds to 55-year-olds.

“We think the road system will handle it,” he said of the 1,000 to 1,600 anticipated concert-goers. “We think it really won’t impact the people.”

What will affect the local community is the possibility created as more phases of Sun Center continue to unfold.

“I’ve always done projects that were somewhat cutting-edge, and they’re not always easy to do,” Rotwitt said, pointing to his role in the 30th Street Station renovation and the construction of the Mellon Bank Center.

“This was even more exciting than the others because of two things,” he said of Sun Center. “It was going to create a lot of jobs, particularly in our next phase.”

Rotwitt said there will be about 3,000 jobs directly and indirectly related to the expansion. These will range from high-tech positions to construction and building trade jobs to sous chefs, waiters and ticket takers.

Secondly, he said the allure of the attraction will be second to none. “We will have, hopefully by two years from today, one of the leading destinations anywhere in this country in terms of opportunity for enjoyment and fun,” Rotwitt said. “It will be jaw-dropping.”

About the Author

Kathleen Carey is the lead business writer for the Daily Times. Reach the author at kcarey@delcotimes.com
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